New house ramblings

I’ve been living at the new house lately. Seriously considered taking a sleeping bag up there last night. All electrical decisions had to be made this week and I had no clue what I was in for. My builder introduced me to the electrician and said“you’ll love working with Erin – she’s super organized and knows exactly what she wants.” Then the madness started. And I didn’t look super organized or like I knew exactly what I wanted. “do you want can lights or fixtures? where will they go? how many in this room? pendants or sconces? where do you want plug outlets? how many outside lights and outlets? flood lights for the yard? which ones will be set to a timer? where will that switch go? where do you want Christmas light outlets? where will your TV outlets go? do you want ceiling fans? do you want bathroom lights and fans together or separate? where will you have lamps? what about central vac?

uh uh uh……

It took two days total and at this point I’m so brain dead that I can’t remember where I put anything. It will not surprise me at all if once we’re living in the new house I walk into my pantry and flip a switch and it turns on the bedroom fireplace. Let’s just say that I am so glad to be done with electrical. My brain is tired. Last night I went to a baby shower for a friend. It was the second time I went to her shower. One week ago I told Kenny to get home from work by 7:00. I rushed to get kids bathed, fed, and homework done. I wrapped a baby gift, got cleaned up, and drove to the party. Almost there and it hit me that it wasn’t December 4th, it was still November and I was a week early. Kenny maybe wouldn’t have minded except I did something similar a couple of weeks ago. I was on the phone with my builder dealing with something that had to be taken care of right then and it was getting close to the time I needed to pick up the girls from school. I frantically text Kenny on my cell while I’m talking to my builder on the home phone – go pick up the girls at school – I can’t make it. He leaves work and rushes to pick them up only to find my neighbor picking them up because we carpool and it was HER day to drive.

Yeah. Good times around here.

I’m not quite myself lately. And I can see very clearly that this is how we’re going to roll for the next six months. So if I go days between posts and then ramble on and on about nothing when I do post, you’ll know why. And hopefully understand? :)

A few iphone pics because clearly this post isn’t random enough already…

Old toys and games, etc. always go to goodwill, but this has been my method of cleaning my girls’ small extra stuff/junk lately. I walk around their rooms with a Target sack and toss everything that doesn’t have a place in the sack. I hang onto the sack for a week or two. If nothing gets mentioned or is missed, I trash it. GONE and DONE. Kids come home with so much extra “stuff” every day and it just leads to clutter. They never miss a thing I toss in these sacks which shows me how important it all is. Not important. Clean rooms without all the junk and clutter? Important.

A walk to the park last weekend. Girls like to hold hands and run ahead.

I like to watch them holding hands and running ahead.

A sign that my Ellie has been at the park.

The heating and cooling ducts are taking up precious space in some of my rooms/closets.

Not a fan.

This pic was taken in the new playroom. See that pocket of space underneath the window where the roof slants? I’ve been finding all sorts of extra little storage space in this house because our roofs are so pitched. I was wondering what I could use that space for and then it hit me!

Perfect! Pull out drawers under the window for all of the stuffed animals. I came up with that one at 2 in the morning the other night. Then I fell back asleep and dreamed that Kenny told everyone to make everything in our new house black. Black floors, black counters, black everything. Then he couldn’t understand why I was so upset about it. You know those dreams that are so stupid but they seem so real? This was one of those. I woke up so happy and relived it was just a dream! :)

We’ve been planning the pool and landscaping. Here are a few pics I took while we were figuring out where the pool will go…

We’re going to put the hot tub inside the pool. I wasn’t crazy about this idea at first, but now I’m really excited about how it’s all going to work. That way we can cover everything together. To be honest, swimming pools scare me to death. If it was up to me, we’d wait a few years to put one in because of Mr. I love to live on the edge of danger…

I think you all know who I’m referring to. :) But it’s easier and cheaper to put a pool in now while we are in the middle of construction anyway so we are looking for ways to make it as safe as possible.

Well. That’s it for now friends. I’m off to give my brain a much needed rest. Until tomorrow that is.

Comments

oh how i feel you!the exact same thing happened to me and 2 years later I found out that I actually need outlets EVERYWHERE.So it’s better to put more, waaay more than you think.Also after the electrical wiring and BEFORE the wall thing I should have taken pics of every damn wall of the house. You can’t imagine how handy that would prove in case of rewiring later or in case of damage repairing etc. So if you still have time do it! and then print it in A3 pages and keep them with your other house files

So excited to see more house pics! I am hearing you with the too much happening thing. We have just finished school for the summer here in Oz (add end of school year to Christmas and its always crazy!!) I looked out my window at the school Library (I am a teacher librarian) to see my sons class washing desks in their swimmers, except he was in his uniform! A teachers’ son and all!! Do you guys not have to have pool fences in the US? I have meant to ask that before when seeing your Mum and Dad’s pool. We have to have them here, it’s a huge thing as is swimming lessons. Hopefully you find a solution that will ease your mind. Here’s hoping it settles down for you soon :)Emma in Aus

In your kitchen, have them put your plug outlets right up against the counter and turn sideways, way easier to hide them! Don’t have them up high, ruining the look of the beautiful backsplash! Also, they put a plug outlet into my fireplace mantel. We had to take out a chuck of wood for it! I love it!! And we put plug outlets into our phone desk cupboard in the kitchen to charge our cell phones, so the cords aren’t out on the counters! love!

We JUST started electrical work on our house 2 days ago! I’m worried we went overboard on sconces, and then, after I eliminated some sconces, I’m worried that things won’t look right without them!

The BEST thing I did was to add USB ports in each bedroom, in the kitchen, and by my built-in desk. That was we can plug in our things without having to have the extra plug part!

And, we added a fan/light switch right by our bed, down lower, so we can turn off the light FROM OUR BED. Genius. :)

And like DreamCatcher said, we’re going to take pics of each room with all of the wiring/plumbing/HVAC and label them, so we can figure out where things are in the walls after they’ve been insulated and sheetrocked.

Oh my word that is all such good advice! Thanks everyone! We did put the kitchen outlets low and turned sideways and we did put a switch by our bed so we can turn the light off at the bed, but I didn’t think about taking pictures and USB ports. I’m on it! I need to go back and make sure I’ve included everything. Thanks again for all the great tips!

Erin I hope you are going with the home vacuume. I know people that have them and can’t imagine life without them. I mean just amazing. They have one in their kitchen off their island by the stove that is an an open slit for crums and when you sweep it just sucks it all down. I MEAN SERIOUSLY….. AMAZING. Just imagine grabbing a little hose to suck the hair out of your bathroom. Such a great invention. That and lean cusines and cadbury eggs. :-)

LOL ha ha I tried to put my miss spelled word the way I did the first time but miss spelled it a different way. I donated blood yesterday…. I am using that as an excuse for my brain not functioning right.

I think I audibly swooned when I read “Christmas outlets.” I can’t tell you how much I’ve though ‘if I could build a house from scratch I’d put an outlet in every window frame for the lovely but awkward window candles.’ Probably not practical, but a pipe dream none the less : )

And speaking of swooning, that space for stuffed animals is PERFECT. Do you think you’ll have some extra space for ours? : )

Good luck with all of this!! I can’t imagine how much work this is; maybe one day I’ll have the pleasure/horror, too : )

The thought of having a pool in my backyard right now (with little ones running around here) scares me to death too. It’s so nice that you’ll be able to cover it up completely. I know I’d go nuts checking the pool every other second if we had one. It wouldn’t be good. When kids are grown and swimming good it’ll be a different story.Love seeing pics of the new house. It’s looking great! Glad to hear you were asked about outlets for Christmas lights. If I built a house those outlets would be at the top of my list!

Electrical is very detailed! My hubby is an Electrician & I put together all his bids & job forms. Theres a lot more that goes into it than people think.Did you end up deciding to get the central vac? We have it but I never use it, I’m not a big fan of the big attachment . I have a Dyson & love it. I understand your worry about the pool, I would invest in one of those black gates that go around the pool & lock. That way its secure ;)

Your girls are so adorable. I have a 1 1/2 year old and 3 1/2 year old daughter and I can only hope that my girls are as close as yours. They have their good and bad moments now. But I hope they become best friends. Thank you for sharing the love between your girls. :)

Erin, this is why I hated building my house… Everything you just said in this post. Too much stress for me. Things you don’t even think about, like electrical, but you have to make the decisions and it’s stressful and you loose sleep over it, aughhh! Too much. But, the real reason I popped in was to say… get a central vacuum system. We put one in a few years ago and I LOVE IT!!! Best money I’ve ever spent ;)

oooh can ‘t wai to see more. Have youlooked at those glass(acrylic) fence slabs that you can put around the pool? We have them here in Canada. My son fell into the pool twice when he was littler and I was there with him and looked away for a second. We put up an ugly fence, just so i can feel safer, and then we removed it when we re-did the landscaping he was a stronger swimmer. Later on you can always get the posts removed and and make it look like they were never there.

In Australia, if you have a pool you must have a pool fence. No excuses. There’s loads of different kinds that kids can’t climb with self latching gates and the latch up high so kids can’t reach – maybe you could do that?

I personally LOVE to see your new house ramblings!!! I wanted to actually pick your brain, if I could. We are maaaaybe possibly going to start the building process, not exactly what YOU are doing (building way custom on your own lot). but I still bet I could get some great tips from you! It’s a well-known builder, but you can make as many custom changes as you want. (all with a pricetag, of course!)… so if you had to tell someone a few MAJOR changes to make, what would they be?? Something in the way of functionality or looks or just anything, I think you’re just so whip smart when it comes to home decor and functionality, I am all ears!! :) I understand if this gets lost in comment-clutter though.. 3 kids and all. PHEW! :)

Thanks so much for all of the great tips everyone! I’m taking notes! :)

Kim – congrats on maybe building! SO exciting! Whew … where to start. I am going to start sharing more of our new house decisions in the new year so hopefully I’ll give you some ideas in my posts. It has been so fun and so overwhelming at the same time! I think the way you are doing it will be much easier! Let me know if you have any specific questions along the way and hopefully my future posts will help.

Welcome to Sunny Side Up where I share my obsession with organization and my love for home design and decor. My husband and I just finished building a house and I can't wait to put my spin on the place and share it all with you. I have three little ones and love everything about motherhood. Except the cooking. I've never enjoyed the cooking. :) Like the city we live in, things are generally pretty sunny around here. Thanks for stopping by!